After 2 decades, seeking new chief for convention center

Orange County faces a crucial staffing question this year: Who will run the nation's second-largest convention center once the facility's current director retires at the end of 2012?

The top spot at the Orange County Convention Center hasn't been vacant since 1991, when then-assistant county administrator Tom Ackert took the helm of the International Drive complex. During Ackert's tenure, the county spent $750 million to nearly double the center's size, a project that helped elevate Orlando into the top ranks of the nation's convention-and-meeting locales.

The natural chain of succession at the sprawling center — which last year hosted 180 events with an estimated combined attendance of 1.2 million people —has been broken by the retirements of both Ackert and the convention center's No. 2 executive, General Manager Jessie Allen.

County Mayor Teresa Jacobs is expected to bring several appointments before the County Commission for approval this week, including that of Deputy General Manager Kathie Canning as the new general manager. Jacobs' appointments will leave the top spot open, however, and the county is staying tight-lipped about a replacement for Ackert.

Last month, Jacobs said she was considering "several strong candidates" for the executive director's job.

"With so many qualified individuals already in the mix, there is no need to conduct a lengthy, national search," the mayor said in an emailed statement. "I plan to thoroughly evaluate these candidates and make an announcement in the near future."

The county would not confirm this week how many applicants, if any, there have been for the job. The position has not yet been posted, and is not required to be advertised, county officials said. County spokesman Steve Triggs changed the timeline for any announcement from the "near future" to "by the end of the year."

Whoever is chosen for the convention-center job will have to work closely with the chief executive of Visit Orlando, the area's primary tourism-marketing agency. That job has been vacant since the unexpected death in May of Visit Orlando President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Sain. The organization's board is conducting a national search for Sain's replacement, with the goal of filling the job by the end of the year.

Sought-after qualifications for the convention-center job include enthusiasm for the job and the community, a good sales background, working contact with hundreds of convention planners, and experience running a large convention center or hotel, said Alan Villaverde, vice president of the Peabody Orlando hotel, which is next door to the Orange County Convention Center.

"It's big shoes to fill," Villaverde said. He later added: "What we don't want, what I don't want, personally, is a political placement … [for whom] this is just a retirement job."

In addition to booking conventions and operating the 7 million-square-foot center, which has more than 2 million square feet of exhibition space, the executive director works closely with local government. The center depends on resort-tax dollars for its operation, and its workers are county employees.

"It certainly, I think, would be helpful if the individual has spent some time here in Orange County," said Harris Rosen, whose Rosen Plaza and Rosen Centre hotels are also adjacent to the center. "I can think of one person who certianly meets that qualification, and that's Kathie Canning."

Villaverde agrees that Canning, who has served as general manager since July 1, is a "solid" choice.

"One has to understand what the political landscape is like," Rosen said. "I think she has learned to do that really quite well, and would carry on really quite beautifully."